July 9, 2023

Happy Disability Pride! Here, Have a Flag!

The Disability Pride Flag represents everyone with a disability, and the design reflects inclusion This piece explains what the flag means, has some links out to the history of the making of the flag, and is available in both audio and text formats
posted by Bottlecap at 7:50 PM PST - 9 comments

The Potential Power of Humid Places, or Tesla's Dream Cranks Up

As the climate change proceeds there will be more water in the atmosphere, though its distribution is uneven, to say the least. Yet in those places with sufficiently humid air there may be an emerging technology that can help. It uses hygroelectricity, this is the static charge that forms on small airborne droplets of water, which in sufficient quantity might be able to power your house, with the right kind of nanowire device. At least that is what a professor at UMass Amherst and a private company in the seed round of investment both say in an article in the Guardian. They are not alone in seeing potential in this. [more inside]
posted by Ignorantsavage at 6:52 PM PST - 18 comments

What is a pademelon?

Pademelons are hopping marsupials that are a bit smaller than most wallabies.
posted by Fiasco da Gama at 5:48 PM PST - 15 comments

LEGO Building Instructions

A dump of all available building instruction booklet PDFs from the LEGO website (As of March 2023) [Archive.org]
posted by chavenet at 5:35 PM PST - 26 comments

To the other side of the Sun, to resurrect the last Great Observatory

Launches, satellites, deep space missions, images, and more. Let's check in on humanity's exploration of space for July 2023. [more inside]
posted by doctornemo at 5:32 PM PST - 7 comments

Gravity waves. Should we wave back?

Top science explainer Katie Mack (she's eclipsed Neil deGrasse Tyson in ability if not in reach, IMO) covers why gravitational waves make her feel all fluttery inside. (ungated link) [more inside]
posted by rikschell at 10:54 AM PST - 26 comments

Elevator Obscura: Hacks and Curios in the Lift Industry

Okay, this is seriously geeky, but it's geeky in such a great way. Elevators: how do they work? Well, this talk from 2011 tells you everything about how elevators work and ALSO is sort of a grey hat hacker video about how elevators REALLY work. Elevator Obscura: Hacks and Curios in the Lift Industry [1h30m, conference talk video, minor CW for a couple of accident photos, no gore]
posted by hippybear at 10:14 AM PST - 38 comments

as the basilisks demand...

Mork Borg is a rules-light tabletop RPG about low-fantasy skulduggery at the end of the world. In its bones are an excess of doom metal, over-the-top graphic design, and an excess of content, both in-house and fan-made. There's a free bare-bones edition for printing and previewing. Online random generators include DNGNGEN, SCVMBIRTHER, and THE MONSTER APPROACHES. A couple fan-made favorites are Forbidden Psalm ('miniature gaming at the end of the world') and the Mork Borg webcomic To Hell and Galgenbeck.
posted by kaibutsu at 10:07 AM PST - 18 comments

The Status Quo-alition

In his most recent 'collection' military historian Bret Devereaux describes the Status Quo Coalition. Summed up in a tweet, he thinks
the current international system is less 'American hegemony' and more a coalition of status quo powers, of which the USA is the 'team captain.'
[more inside]
posted by Rash at 10:01 AM PST - 14 comments

Rare seriously, seriously cute chubby-cheeked rat discovered

Rare seriously, seriously cute chubby-cheeked rat discovered near Melbourne. Shy broad-toothed rat found after a detection dog tracked down its bright green poo.
posted by chariot pulled by cassowaries at 1:40 AM PST - 20 comments

« Previous day | Next day »